Tag: Lightening wines

I do love a good Grenache. That is a fact. The key word is good. This variety is so expressive of it’s terroir, but also very sensitive to the winemaking process. Some of the best Grenache I’ve had are from winemakers with a kind of “hippie” attitude, if you will, when it comes to their Rhone-style winemaking approach: Express the terroir, man.

Tasting this Grenache “blind” — as in no tech sheet or vineyard or winemaking information prior to tasting — I felt that this particular wine lacked site specificity, that the overall palate was more about the winemaking than the wine grape. That being said, I never feature wines that I don’t think are worth writing about. I do think that the flavor profile and palate will be suitable to some and that it can have a fit given the proper pairing.

Lightening Wines is a new sip for me. Winemakers Randy and Brooke Hester were kind enough to send me a few samples to taste what their small batch winery is all about. This Napa-based winery focuses on Rhone-style wines, sourcing much of their grapes from El Dorado County, California’s self-proclaimed “Rhone-zone.” As someone who loves Rhone wines and appreciates California’s diverse expression of the grapes that are so dependent on both region and winemaker, I was eager to taste what Lightening Wines had to offer. Always skeptical about white blends in general, spoiler alert: I was very much impressed by this CDP Blanc. Well-balanced, refreshing, and just downright tasty, I was able to enjoy with several meals throughout the week.